Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 6th, 2008
In the Valley of Elah is the second film I’ve seen recently that addresses the condition of soldiers returning from the Iraq war. Unlike Home of the Brave, however, Elah is actually a strong film with impressive performances and a story that hooks you and holds on to the end. It’s a Paul Haggis production – the two-time Oscar winner wrote, directed and produced the film – so Elah has some serious cred right off the bat, thanks to the success of other Haggis projects. Maybe you’ve heard of Crash, best picture winner of 2004, Million Dollar Baby or Letters From Iwo Jima?
Those credits aside, In the Valley of Elah’s best feature is a masterful performance by Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men), who’s up for a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of an old-school army veteran searching for his son.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 31st, 2008
I remember when Ocean’s Eleven was first announced, and how disappointed I was. Steven Soderbergh was already well-respected by critics and serious film buffs due to his films Sex, Lies & Videotape, Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich and Traffic. He was the last person in Hollywood that needed to sell out to the masses by directing a re-make packed with eye candy. Not only that, but he chose to re-make a fantastic film that starred the Rat Pack. Essentially, Soderbergh decided to go to Vegas and relieve himself on the legacy of Frank Sinatra in the name of the almighty dollar. Imagine my surprise when I saw the film, and it was nothing short of fantastic; an amazing re-creation of the spirit of the original film, while updating the plot to be both modern and classic at the same time. Soderbergh had won me over. Even with all that success, I never expected a sequel. The sequel, cleverly titled Ocean’s Twelve, was something of a letdown. It was missing the slick feel of the original, and it seemed like everybody simply phoned it in. I still enjoyed it, but it was nowhere near as fun as the first. Now we come to Ocean’s Thirteen, which sees the crew finally return to their Vegas roots. While I still consider Eleven to be the best film in this series, Thirteen is a worthy follow up. The camera work is clever, the story is tight, and the acting is sharper than the previous iteration. Newcomer Al Pacino does his usual fantastic work here, and the whole film moves along at a quick pace that keeps the action exciting from start to finish, with no lulls. The whole point of this film is cool, and it delivers completely. VideoI love movies shot in Vegas. The lights on the strip and in the casinos always pop in a way that is more spectacular than any other location on earth. This is a golden opportunity to really show off what the standard DVD format can do. Unfortunately, this disc just looks horrible. Images are way too dark, even during the daytime in the desert. The images severely lack definition, and they are very grainy. There is also a real problem with edge enhancement that makes many of the stars’ faces appear nowhere near as sharp as they should be. AudioThe audio here is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the music is fantastic; cool, peppy and slick. On the other hand, the audio quality it self is pretty average. There is not a lot of punch from the subwoofer, the surrounds are sparse, and the whole thing is lacking the flash that I was hoping to hear from such a slick film. Special FeaturesIt’s a real shame to say it, but the special features included on this disc are slim. In addition to the inclusion of some deleted scenes, there are also two special features here. The first is called Vegas: An Opulent Illusion- Las Vegas’ Influential Design Sense. See, now all this time I thought Las Vegas was the pinnacle of trashy design, but apparently I was mistaken. Independent of taste, this featurette appears to be a Travel Channel segment that discusses the architecture of Sin City, and is actually a very interesting and first-rate documentary segment. The other featurette is called Jerry Weintraub Walk and Talk- The producer takes us on a casino tour. This is actually a tour of the indoor set where this film was shot, and it reminded me of a similar extra that Martin Scorsese did on the Gangs of New York DVD. Unfortunately, it just lasts a little over two minutes. Final ThoughtsTo put it simply, good movie, bad disc. While not up to the same standard set by Ocean’s Eleven, this is a very entertaining film that deserves much better treatment on DVD. It’s possible that the HD DVD version fixes many of the audio and video problems present here, but I can not attest to that. Given the poor quality of the presentation here, however, I can only imagine that HD would be the way to go.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 22nd, 2008
I don’t particularly care how many times filmmakers recycle old tales, so long as they produce enjoyable films. The Invasion revisits sci-fi scribe Jack Finney’s “The Body Snatchers” for the fourth time on film, following in the steps of the original 1956 film and the ’78 and ’93 remakes. Dave Kajganich wrote the screenplay, and Oliver Hirschbiegel (The Downfall) directed. Then Warner hired the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix) to rewrite some scenes and inject more action into the film, and James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) to direct the re-shoots.
So is The Invasion a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, or just the right creative balance to bring Finney’s classic horror tale to life in the new millennium?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 8th, 2008
As the Harry Potter franchise heads into the home stretch of films, some of the film’s young cast members are attempting to break out into other roles, or at least employ a little bit more emotional depth in the roles that they’ve made into small cottage businesses. And of course, the biggest one in the bunch is Harry himself, Daniel Radcliffe. He’s appeared in a London played named “Equus”, in which he appeared nude in and got a lot of notoriety for, but received some praise based on his performance. He also appeared in the Ricky Gervais show Extras where he played himself in a role where he really really wants to break out from his childhood perception. But in December Boys, he plays a bit of a loner of sorts, though people seem to label the film for the sensationalist things Radcliffe does in the film. Look, Harry Potter smokes and gets it on with a girl, wow! But looking beyond perception, it’s a decent film.
December Boys was a film that was adapted from a Michael Noonan novel and directed by Rod Hardy, who has directed mainly television shows, most recently, Battlestar Galactica. But in the film, Radcliffe plays a guy known as Maps, along with his friends Misty (Lee Cormie, Darkness Falls), Sparks (Christian Byers) and Spit (James Fraser). The boys are slightly older orphans who have not been adopted by any prospective Australian families and are getting to the age where adoption is unlikely. They share the same relative birthday in December, and at the orphanage they live at, the nuns give them a chance to go to the beach and enjoy a holiday during Christmas, where two sets of families decide to welcome them. The younger family apparently has aspirations for adopting one of the children and Misty finds this out, and the boys are thrown in a competition of sorts. Maps finds Lucy (Theresa Palmer, The Grudge 2), who is staying there for a time, and shows Maps his first real look at the birds and the bees.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on January 5th, 2008
When warner Brothers decided to start their Raw Feed line of direct-to-DVD horror films, Daniel Myrick was brought in to Produce. The choice of Myrick was a no-brainer, as he (along with his partner Eduardo Sanchez), was the creative force behind the "Blair Witch" phenomenon. While the team Directed the first film, they served as Producers on the second. Admittedly, "Blair Witch 2" was not as well received as its predecessor, but it was exactly the type of film that would be successful as a direct-to-DVD release.
Myrick Produced the first two Raw Feed releases ("Rest Stop" and "Sublime", which both received high marks on this web site), and he has moved back into the directing chair with the third film in the series, "Believers". Truth be told, this is really Myrick's traditional Directorial debut, as the faux documentary style of "Blair Witch" was not a typical feature. I had high expectations for this film, but unfortunately, it looks like Myrick is better wearing the hat of a Producer than that of a Director.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 21st, 2007
The defendant is charged with impersonating a classic movie, Felony murder of 81 minutes of human life, grand larceny (after review of the film’s sales figures this charge has been reduced to petty larceny), and aggravated assault to my intelligence. The court will show that director Victor Garcia did willfully and with malice and forethought create a sequel to an inferior remake of a classic motion picture. The evidence will clearly show that the film lacks any tangible resemblance to the original film and therefore has fraudulently engaged in a plot to lure the original film’s fans to the video store with false promises of quality and entertainment. The evidence will also show that writer William Massa did in fact commit these horrid lines to script, and in collaboration with others masquerading as actors, did inflict harm on this reviewer and several innocent bystanders. These defendants conspired to take money from unsuspecting DVD renters under the guise of entertainment. I present the following:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 19th, 2007
In 1959 Rod Serling changed the face of television. This unimposing thin man stepped in front of a camera and told us we were entering a world of shadow… the Twilight Zone. The anthology series ran for 5 years and included some of the best genre tales ever told. We all have our favorites, and my list is too long to go into here. Even years after when Serling himself had passed it never truly died. Syndication found a huge new following for the series, and it inspired not only revivals of itself but a long list of other anthology shows over the years like Tales From The Crypt and Tales From The Darkside, but none of these imitators ever came close. Serling was a genius in not only picking out great material, but he was a master presenter as well. So in 1983 when 4 of the world’s leading genre filmmakers banded to do a Twilight Zone Movie, the expectations went through the proverbial ceiling.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 17th, 2007
I like Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting). A lot. Generally, his presence alone is enough to make me watch a particular movie — an unfortunate fact, given his spotty record. The man can be hilarious, and he has starred in some highly entertaining films over his long career. But he's also done bad movies, flops and failures. License to Wed is one of those.
10 minutes in, I wanted to turn it off. At 18 minutes, I was actively mocking everything and anything onscreen. By the half-way point, I was cursing my obligation as reviewer to sit through the entire film. This movie is an all-around bust. Stop reading now, and check out some other Upcomingdiscs reviews for better films to watch. You can pretty much close your eyes and click to find something that'll top License to Wed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on December 6th, 2007
Malcolm McDowell’s second collaboration with director Lindsay Anderson, after their triumph with If..., sees McDowell as an enthusiastic new coffee salesmen sent off to make his company’s fortune in an ever widening area of the Britain. In true picaresque style, he has one strange adventure and encounter after another, each more bizarre than the last, and the whole is intercut with studio performances of Alan Price’s songs that comment on the whole enterprise.
Picaresque narratives are, by their nature, sprawling, episodic tales, and that is certainly true of O Lucky Man, which clocks in at just under three hours. They can, however, also have plots that only appear to be random, but are in fact as tight as wound watch, as is the case with Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. This is less the case with Anderson’s film, which feels considerably more scattershot in approach. The episodes can be amusing, and McDowell is excellent throughout, but the satirical broadsides feel more obvious than pointed. Viewers will likely be divided over how they feel about the same actors (including Ralph Richardson and Helen Mirren) popping up in multiple roles, a convention rarely seen except in theatre. An interestingly messy work.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on December 5th, 2007
The fat lady has sung, taken her bows and waddled off to the after-party. Gilmore Girls, a show loved by many — and abhorred by some — was canceled in May, leaving fans without a true series finale. Here, in this DVD set, lie the final episodes, created without input from series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, who left the show after season six.
This is not a fitting end for our Gilmore Girls, but unless a rumored movie becomes reality, it's all we're going to get. So if you're looking for closure, this ain't the place.
